spirit.fire.she

When I’m nervous I don’t bite my nails, I just pick-up my emery board and go totown. I start filing them down. Way down. Looking at my laptop now I see the filed sawdust-like remnants of what two days ago was a beautiful manicure. Now I’m typing with stubs. It’s Election Day and I’m stressed the crunk out!

It’s Halloween and my mind couldn’t be further away from tricks and treats than it is right now. Yes, I’m stunned, transfixed even, by the images on my television of the devastation left in Sandy’s wake. And to be honest, right now there is probably only one thing that grips my heart harder than the images of the burnt smoldering ash that was once the thriving neighborhood of Breezy Point and that’s the fact that Read more...

Recently with so many let downs (Obama’s performance at 1st Presidential debate & Stacy’s Dash’s endorsement of Mitt Romney), put downs (crazy Coulter) it’s so refreshing when something unexpected happens that puts a smile on our faces like Joe Biden’s VP debate stance; like getting a “Thinking About You” card in the mail amongst all the bills; like finding money in a jacket pocket. Homestead Survival had a great idea for literally holding on to Read more...

For the last two weeks Writer’s Block, anxiety, insomnia, and a “Things-To-Do-List” that rivals the Ten Commandments in magnitude and length has been looming over my head like mistletoe over the heads of two total strangers. I felt pressured to make a move, but couldn’t. I sat at my laptop struggling to spit out rhyme and reason and to somehow make literary the garble of confused ideas ricocheting back-n-forth in my mind. I fought, unsuccessfully, Read more...

11 years ago today, the NYC skyline and all of our lives were forever altered. I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was a bright, clear, brisk morning. Just like today actually. I was exuberant about the prospects of a meeting I was to have at 10am next door to the downtown Century 21 located mere blocks away from the World Trade Center. I was rushing out of my apartment to vote in Read more...

“I’ve never changed my hair. I’ve never changed my color, I have always been proud of myself, and my fans are proud of me for remaining the way I’ve always been.” – Nina Simone

When I think of Nina Simone I think of her dark chocolate skin, her full lips and her tight ‘fro. Her looks were and still are every bit as relevant and powerful as the songs she sang. As a matter of Read more...

By last Sunday’s Olympic Closing Ceremonies, I was so ready for that flame to be extinguished and the Games to be over and done with. I hate to admit it, but I had grown tired of the Olympic coverage. It went about five days too long and the spoilers didn’t help motivate me to watch a competition in which I already knew who won gold. I certainly could’ve done without the synchronized swimming, the diving– Read more...

Last Thursday would have been Whitney Houston’s 49th birthday and I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that she is dead. Six months after her shocking death and her passing feels as sudden and as unreal now as it did that day in February when she drowned in her Beverly Hilton Hotel bathtub. Unlike Michael Jackson’s death where many of us felt like we somehow had let the King of Pop slip through Read more...

In 1995 I called myself “relocating” to Los Angeles to work on a music project and to make a name for myself in TV and film. Forget making a splash in Hollywood, I was going to create a tidal wave. Two weeks went by and I was clear about one thing: I hated La La Land! The only water works I was creating were the tears I cried at night as I longed to get Read more...